When We Were Little
by Allie-Marina
Summary: Two different parts of the story are going on. One half preHogwarts, the other at Hogwarts. Their childhood friendship is abandoned, but someone needs to fix it before they miss their last chance. Not a companion piece. OliverKatie
1. Chapter 1: I'm Stuck with You

  
**Title:**  When We Were Little  
**Author name:** Allie-Marina  
**Category:** Romance  
**Sub Category:** Humor/Angst  
**Keywords:** Oliver Katie flashback  
**Rating****:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** First three books  
**Summary:** Two different parts of the story are going on. One half preHogwarts, the other at Hogwarts. A childhood friendship is abandoned, but someone needs to fix it before they miss their last chance. Not a companion piece. Oliver/Katie  
**DISCLAIMER:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. May included lines from Friends, Dawson's Creek, Everwood, Smallville, As Told by Ginger, the Great Gatsby, The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson, to name just a few.  
**Author notes:** I know that I have done the whole Katie/Oliver thing before, but I was hit by the idea the other day in my car. I came home and hopped on the computer. Thanks to Araanaz for the BETA and encouraging me to post it! 

Very loosely follows the third book. Katie is a fifth year along with Angelina, Alicia, Fred and George; Oliver is in his seventh and final year. And I assumed that Ancient Runes was not a mandatory class. So, a wizard could start the class any of the years, as long as they have three years of the subject before leaving the school. 

I can't believe this is happening, Oliver thought. On the other hand, luck was never on his side.   
  
He hated her.   
  
He hated her even more when Professor Terentius declared them partners in Ancient Runes class that day. "Katie Bell and Oliver Wood," said Professor, and then read off the next pair.  
  
His eyes narrowed as he cast an angry glance over to Katie, two seats to his left. He watched as her face frowned and she hung her head, disappointed that she wasn't Fred Weasley's partner, one of her very best friends.   
  
"Please sit with your partners!" Professor Terentius called. Oliver groaned, hating Professor at the moment.  
  
Katie remained at her seat. She wasn't moving. Stubborn little girl!  
  
"Bell!" Wood called over to her. She didn't look up. "Bell!" he called louder. She blankly looked up at him and narrowed her own eyes in the hard glare that Wood had grown accustomed to seeing.   
  
"What the bloody hell do you want, Wood?" she bit out.  
  
"Don't be dim! Partners are supposed to sit together," he said matter-of-factly, his mood decreasing even so.  
  
"And?" Katie asked. "I don't see a problem."  
  
"You haven't moved, Bell."  
  
"Neither have you," she retorted.  
  
"Hell, Bell, get up!" he ordered.  
  
"Don't order me around, Wood!"  
  
"Simmer down!" Professor Terentius barked at them. "Mister Wood, would you_ please_ move your seat next to your partner?"  
  
Cursing under his breath, Wood picked up his books and sauntered over to where Katie had been sitting. He slammed his text book on the desk in front of her.  
  
She looked up at him with wide annoyed eyes and her jaw hung open. She rolled her eyes once and turned back to the parchment that sat before her. The answers to question one _and_ two were filled out and Wood hadn't even gotten to see the blasted assignment yet.  
  
"You started with_out_ me?" he demanded, plopping into the seat next to her. His fingers were near trembling.   
  
"You're such a _kill_joy, Wood. I_ know these answers, so why not answer them?" She threw her purple quill on to the desktop and leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms.  
  
"It was supposed to be a partner assignment!"  
  
"You'll still get the credit!"  
  
He _really_ couldn't stand to be around her. "Fine then! I'm just following instructions, you know."  
  
"You can answer the _next_ two if you want!"  
  
"_I_ wanted to answer __those two!" he said, pointing to the first two questions.   
  
"I can't believe that she put me with _you_!"  
  
"It's no picnic having to work with you, __either! Just do the assignment then, for crying out loud!"  He was sure was going to start banging his head on the desk if he had to spend any more time within a five foot radius of this girl.  
  
"No! Now _you_ do some work! And __don't tell me what to do, this isn't Quidditch practice!"  
  
"If it_ was_, you'd be sitting __out right now."  
  
"Oh, deary me, I'm so hurt. I think I might shed a frickin' tear!" she ground out.  
  
Cool down, Wood. She's just a silly fifth year girl, cool __down. You're a seventh year! You __never should have started with this class as a fifth year, Katie's third. At the time she _begged_ him to take it with her. "Look, let's just finish it and not talk, okay?" he sighed, extremely frustrated.  
  
"Perfect."  
  
***  
  
He hated her, and yet he loved her. Rather, he hated her __because he loved her. How it made sense, Wood didn't know. But it just did.  
  
He spent so much of his time thinking about how he hated her, and he hated that, too. He hated when she bit her lip in concentration, he hated how the sun caught in her hair when she played Quidditch, he hated how her eyes twinkled, how her cheeks blushed when talking to Rhys, how she laughed, how she was the only person in the whole universe to have command over his emotions, and yet she had no idea.   
  
He didn't want to hate Rhys, but in a secret way, he kind of did. Rhys, Wood's best friend. Rhys, Katie's boyfriend.  
  
Life just wasn't fair sometimes. Or all of the time.   
  
***********  
  
A nine year old Oliver Wood stood on the top of his lookout tower his father had built for him in his backyard. He had been pretending that the role of parchment in his hand was a telescope.  
  
He had been surveying the yard, pretending he was looking out over the open sea, when he heard a rustle in the wood behind him. He took a step back. "Who's there?" he called.  
  
More rustling. "I'm not kidding, who are you?"  
  
Now there was silence. Little Oliver grew scared. But he was captain of the ship! He had to be brave!  
  
Out from the wood stumbled a little boy in a plain black sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. He tripped on a tree root and fell. His baseball cap flew off his head and landed in the grass next to him.  
  
But, boys aren't supposed to wear long, brown, French plaits with __red ribbon holding them together. The he was a she.   
  
"Ow..." she grunted, pushing herself into a sitting position. She looked at her hands, they were all dirty and scratched up.   
  
"You're a girl!" Oliver said lowering the 'telescope'.  
  
The little girl looked up at him. "I'm bleeding!" she squeaked, watching a small trickle of red run down her ring finger and form a pool in the palm of her hand. "Oh yuck!" she said, getting to her feet, rushing over to the lookout tower. "Look at it!"  
  
Oliver climbed down the ladder and jumped the last few steps to land on the grass. Oliver grimaced. "Ewww. You _are_ bleeding. You should get that fixed."  
  
The little girl looked back down at her hand. "But it doesn't hurt anymore."  
  
"So?"  
  
"So, it will stop soon," she said putting her other pointer finger into the little puddle.  
  
"Don't touch it!" he shouted. By this time, Oliver realized that she wasn't from around here. The way she spoke didn't sound like anyone he knew.  
  
The little girl jumped and looked up wide eyed at Oliver. "Why not?"  
  
"Because!" he said. "Who __are you?"  
  
"My name's Katie. Are you Oliver?" she asked, momentarily forgetting about her cut.  
  
Oliver straightened up. He had never been recognized before in all of his long nine years. "Yes. Yes, I am. Why?"  
  
"My Gram told me about you."  
  
Oliver watched as a tiny drop of scarlet liquid dropped to the ground through Katie's fingers. He looked back at the little girl. "Who's your Gram?"  
  
"Clarisse Bell --- Ow!" she said, her cut suddenly stinging.  
  
"Come on..." Oliver said, grabbing Katie by the wrist of her clean hand and tugging her along to the house.   
  
"Where are we going?" she asked, trying to keep up.  
  
"You need to be fixed."  
  
Oliver yanked the back door to his house open, and pulled Katie into a white, alarmingly clean kitchen. "MA?? Mum!" Oliver called when they got inside.  
  
Katie looked around; the house was so..._clean_! She held her palm like a bowl, carefully, as not to let herself drip on the white tile floor.  
  
Moments later, a woman came into the kitchen. "Yes, love?" she asked her son. He pointed to the little girl who was staring at how high the ceilings were.  
  
"She got hurt," Oliver said. "Can you use magic and heal her?"  
  
Mrs. Wood froze, she bent down to her son's ear and whispered, "You're not supposed to say the __'m' word in front of the other 'm' words! Muggles!"  
  
"But Mum," Oliver whispered back. "She's a__Bell."  
  
Mrs. Wood stood up and nodded. "Oh," she said. "I __see."  
  
"Bell, come here." Oliver waved her over.  
  
The little girl frowned. "My name is _Katie_ Bell."  
  
Mrs. Wood lowered herself so she was eye level with Katie. She gingerly took Katie's wrist. "Oh, that's a nasty cut," she whispered, smiling at Katie.  
  
Mrs. Wood couldn't believe how alarming little Katie's eyes were. They were emerald green with a cinnamon color around her pupils. "How did you get it?"  
  
Oliver sniggered. "She tripped over a tree root."  
  
"It tripped _me_!" Katie defended, sticking her tongue out at Oliver, as he giggled, shoving his hands into his pants pockets. "It _did_!!"  
  
"Should we fix it?" Mrs. Wood asked Katie. Katie stopped glaring at Oliver and turned back to Mrs. Wood.  
  
"Please, it_ hurts_."  
  
"But, you said it _didn't_ hurt"! Oliver interrupted.  
  
"Well, it_ does_ now!"  
  
"Shhh," Mrs. Wood hushed them. She took her wand out and whispered some words that Katie had never heard before. "All better."  
  
Katie looked at where her cut had been. It was gone. Magic was__ so cool. "I'm not allowed to do magic," Katie pouted. "Not until I go to Hogwarts."  
  
Oliver suddenly appeared at Katie's side. "When I'm eleven, __I'm going to go there!"  
  
"That's a loooong time for me," Katie said.  
  
"How long?" Mrs. Wood asked. "How old are you, Katie?"  
  
"Seven-and-a-_half_," Katie said, holding up eight fingers. Oliver reached over to her hand and bent half of a finger down.  
  
"I'm nine," Oliver bragged, smiling.  
  
"Where do you live?" Mrs. Wood asked, asking all the important questions.  
  
"We live in Manchester. That's in England. I'm half of a muggle and half of a witch," she said. "But my Gram lives down the road. I'm staying for the summer."  
  
"I know your Gram, she's a very nice lady," Mrs. Wood smiled.  
  
"Yeah, she gives me candy!"  
  
"She has a bunch of candy. But she can't give __any to baby Ryan," Katie said, placing herself in a seat at the Kitchen table.  
  
"Baby Ryan?" Oliver asked.  
  
"You have a younger brother?"   
  
Katie smiled. "Yes. He's almost two. He's really cute. But, he doesn't do much. He eats, cries, sleeps and poos."_

Oliver giggled again. Katie went on, "I tried telling him about Quidditch once, but he fell asleep."   
  
"Quidditch?!" Oliver asked, smiling widely.  
  
"Yes, what?" Katie asked.  
  
Oliver pulled out the chair next to Katie and sat himself in it. "Mum?" he asked. "Can Katie stay for dinner?"


	2. Chapter 2: I'm Stuck on You

**Title:** When We Were Little  
**Author name:** Allie-Marina  
**Category:** Romance  
**Sub Category:** Humor/Angst  
**Keywords:**  Katie Oliver friendship  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, QTTA  
**Summary:** Oliver can't stand to be around Kate and believes a lie. Katie's complains about Wood again, and contemplates why her boyfriend won't kiss her. Katie visits Oliver late at night.  
**DISCLAIMER:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.   
**Author notes:** Hi! Thanks to each and everyone of my reviewers. Really, thanks. And thanks to Laura for the BETA. Rhys is pronounced 'rice.' And he was inspired by Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The hot guy from Bend It Like Beckham. You all rule, and thanks for sticking with me.

The end to that class could not have been more welcome. The dead air between the two was deafening and uncomfortable. He could have picked another fight just so he wouldn't feel so _awkward_. He could have done something to break the everlasting quietness.  
  
It was too silent, and he was hating every second of it. Sitting next to Katie, not talking, not even _arguing_. He had been glancing her over the whole class. She was biting her lip again as she wrote, and her hair fell into her face. He wanted to tell her to push it back, but that would be an odd discussion. What would he say? 'Pull your hair back so I can see your face?'  
  
He was seconds away from reaching over to her face and delicately sweeping her hair off her shoulders himself, when he stopped. 'I have to get away,' Oliver told himself. 'Away...away from _her_.' He couldn't have been anymore thankful when Professor Terentius deemed the class dismissed. He bolted out of the room like a rocket.  
  
***  
  
She knew that this class was going to hell. As soon as the Professor Terentius uttered those terrible words, she hung her head. He was going to yell at her again; he always did, but she always fought back.  
  
He hated her, she knew very well. She just wanted to avoid confrontation with Wood today. She really wasn't in the mood to yell; she wasn't even in the mood to look his way. He'd be terrible to her.  
  
And terrible to her, he was.  
  
He had just started hating her randomly, and she didn't know why. She would have loved to hate him right back, but try as she might, she couldn't. She just highly, _highly_ disliked him.  
  
And as for Quidditch, that's a whole other story.  
  
She walked the rest of the way back to Gryffindor tower with Fred. "How do you think you did on the assignment?" he asked. "I think I did alright, it's just that there are these three symbols I keep forgetting, and I mix them up."  
  
"I know exactly what your talking about," Katie answered, climbing stairs with Fred, "but that class was absolutely _horrible. I had to be partnered with Wood. Wood! Everyone knows he hates me!"  
  
"Well, how do you think you did?"  
  
"I think we did well, only because _I _ended up doing all the work."  
  
"I'm sure he doesn't _hate_ you. You're still on the Quidditch team, aren't you? I mean he hasn't had you removed... has he?" Fred asked.  
  
"Rhys would _kill_ him if he kicked me off the team. Not that _that _situation hasn't crossed his mind, I'm sure."  
  
"I think I know why he isn't fond of you," Fred mused. "He's secretly in love with his best friend and he's jealous that you got to him before he did."  
  
Katie laughed out loud. "Nice one! But, it doesn't matter why he hates me. Can't he just _leave me alone_?"  
  
"Not until you break up with Rhys so Oliver can have him," Fred joked.  
  
Katie laughed again. "Rhys is one-hundred percent man and one hundred percent mine."  
  
They entered the common room, where Rhys was playing chess with Wood. Rhys excused himself from the chess game and as he stood up, Katie could see the look of disgust on Wood's face.   
  
"Hi, how were your classes?" Rhys asked as he hugged Katie.   
  
"I wouldn't know, ask your friend. He was my partner in class," Katie said. Rhys was well aware that his girlfriend and his best friend didn't find each other's company comfortable.  
  
"I see," Rhys answered and looked back at Oliver who was slumped in his chair in front of the chess board, awaiting Rhys's return. "Don't worry about him."  
  
"I never do," Katie replied, beaming up at her boyfriend.  
  
Rhys smiled back at her. She could stare into his electric blue eyes all day, everyday. He didn't play Quidditch, but that didn't matter. Not all Quidditch players were 'worthy', obviously. On the upside, Rhys was a superb fencer.  
  
Rhys's most apparent downside was his connection to Wood. Year mates, room mates, and best friends. She hated having to share with Wood, but she would never want Rhys to stop being friends with Wood, even if she has stopped being friends with him. It wouldn't be fair to Rhys.  
  
***  
  
She had been playing for Gryffindor for four years and she still managed to be late to every practice. Figures.  
  
She had burst in while everyone was putting arm, wrist and shin gaurds on themselves. Wood looked up from his occupation, but only briefly to see that Katie was a tinge red in the face.  
  
"Sorry I'm late," she said to no one in particular.  
  
Wood nodded, but didn't say anything, and he turned back to strapping his arm guards on. He'd been used to her truancy for a while now. But, today she was even later than usual.  
  
"So, Katie, where were_ you_?" George grinned.  
  
"She was with_ Rhys_," Fred answered his twin.  
  
"Snogging?" George asked.  
  
"But of course," Angelina snickered. Wood felt his temper rising again.  
  
"Will you three be quiet about my dating life?" Katie insisted, opening her locker.  
  
"More like _sex_ life..." Alicia muttered.   
  
Katie spun around abruptly. "Alicia!" she hissed. Now Wood was mad. Alicia's commentary was completely too much for him to handle. He had to leave.  
  
"Let's go," he muttered to Harry.  
  
They had both got up to leave when Katie shouted. "Wait, I'm not ready yet!"  
  
'Like _hell_ you aren't,' Wood thought. "Fine. All of you guys, help her out or something," he told the rest of the team as he turned and left the changing room. He walked down the dirt path to the Quidditch pitch, with Harry by his side.  
  
Wood guessed that if he wasn't rambling on to Harry about Quidditch, Harry might suspect something of Wood and try to find it out. That was something about Harry. He was a detective, he knew when things were wrong. So, he forced himself to go on and on about Aiden Lynch, the Irish National Seeker, even though he had started feeling sick.  
  
He could barely even glance in Katie's way for about a week, and all the conversations that he'd had with Rhys, weren't as comfortable; Rhys couldn't really understand why.  
  
It wasn't that Rhys had changed, it was just that somehow Wood felt that Rhys had bettered him. Maybe he did.  
  
Oliver was seriously considering performing a memory charm on himself so that he would forget the horrible banter that had taken place in the changing room that week ago. He couldn't stand that he cared so much.  
  
Since then, Wood made sure he was ready and dressed before the team got there. As soon as the first person showed up, he would get his broom and leave, afraid of hearing anything _else_ of that nature.  
  
And, he _dreaded_ Ancient Runes.  
  
***  
  
Of course, Alicia had only been kidding about Katie and Rhys. It was well known to Angelina and Alicia that Rhys was still yet to __really kiss Katie, let alone snog her or do anything __else with her. Fred and George somehow found out as well, and liked to tease Katie about it.   
  
Rhys had given short kisses on the lips all the time, but he'd always pulled away too fast to make it anything else. She had been with him for nearly a year, and it was a strange relationship, indeed.  
  
He was only her second boyfriend, so she wasn't very experienced. The first boy she "dated" was an American Ravenclaw, halfway through her third year. They had been together for maybe a month and a half and he'd kissed her. But then, he transferred back to the States soon after.  
  
**********  
  
Katie had left her hat on Oliver's lawn outside of his house. But she didn't notice, and she left through the front door when Gram Bell walked to the Wood's house to get Katie after she had dinner with the Wood's.   
  
She had been jumping from bed to bed in Oliver's room. He was lucky, he got to have two beds in his room. "I'm flying!" she declared.  
  
Oliver knew it wasn't a good idea to jump on the beds, but it only took him seconds for his fears to push aside. Soon enough he was jumping through the air with her, shouting with laughter.   
  
"Stop jumping on the beds!" They could hear Mrs. Wood's voice amplified with a Sonorous Charm.  
  
They immediately stopped jumping, and Katie landed on the floor like a cat. She ran to the window, and looked out it.  
  
"What are you looking at?" Oliver asked, trying to catch his breath from jumping, he stood behind her trying to see what was so interesting.  
  
She turned around, wide-eyed. "You've got a roof right below your window," she told him.  
  
"I know," he said. "What about it?"  
  
"I bet I could climb it."  
  
"Could not," Oliver objected.  
  
"Could too!"  
  
"Katie! Time to go," called Mrs. Wood.  
  
Katie turned back to Oliver. "Bye!" she said, and hurried out of his room.   
  
He followed her, though. He slowly walked down his stairs and sat in the middle of them, watching through the spindles from the banister, as Katie put her sneakers on.  
  
Mrs. Bell, Katie's Gram, was talking with Oliver's mother. He picked up the words granddaughter, Manchester, summer, and Hogwarts.  
  
"Okay, Gram. Ready to go!" Katie called when her sneakers were properly tied.  
  
Gram Bell took Katie's hand and they walked through the door. "Wait!" he heard Katie say outside, as he was sitting on his steps.  
  
Katie hurried back into the house. She stopped in the doorway and beamed up at Oliver, sitting on the steps. "Thanks for inviting me for dinner!"  
  
He just smiled and waved. She grinned back and turned away.   
  
After the door closed, Oliver went to a window so he could watch Katie and Gram Bell walk away holding hands. Katie was skipping.  
  
Oliver felt a hand run through his hair. He looked up to see his mother grinning down at him. "She's a nice girl, hmmm?" Mrs. Wood asked. "Such nice manners."  
  
Oliver didn't answer, he just turned and stared out the window.  
  
When Oliver went back up to his room, he changed into his jimjams and stood at his window, contemplating if it really was possible for someone to climb up to his window. It was a long way down to fall.  
  
***  
The next day, Oliver sat up on his lookout tower, just in case any visitors might come stumbling through the woods. No one came. He was bored.  
  
He noticed the baseball cap that Katie had worn in the few seconds that he thought she was a boy. He picked it up. "Montrose Magpies," it said.  
  
It was getting late, and it looked like no one was coming, so he went inside, holding the hat. He closed out the sound of crickets' chirping when the door closed behind him.  
  
After he closed the light in his room, crawling into one of his beds, he heard a thump. He didn't hear it again, so he ignored it. Then something knocked the curtains that had been wafting lighty in the breeze from outside. Whatever it was landed in a heap on the floor, next to the window.  
  
Oliver sat up, and looked at the heap on the floor. "Katie?" he asked cautiously.  
  
It stood up. "I told you I could climb it," came Katie's voice.  
  
He laughed softly under his breath, so not to wake the household. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Visiting you."  
  
"Won't they be looking for you?"  
  
"Nah, everyone's asleep."  
  
"But it's dark out."  
  
"It's not cloudy," Katie said.  
  
"So?"  
  
"There's moonlight, I can see," she pointed out. "I have a hat just like that."  
  
She had been pointing at the Montrose Magpies hat, and Oliver picked it up and handed it to her. "Oh, you left it here yesterday."  
  
"You can have it," she replied. "I have more at home."  
  
"Cool!" Oliver said and put the hat on his head.  
  
"You're wearing your jammies," Katie observed.  
  
"Uh huh," Oliver stated. "I was going to go to sleep now."  
  
Katie's face fell. "Oh. Okay. I'll go home now."  
  
"Don't be silly," Oliver said. "You can sleep there, as long as you leave really early in the morning." He nodded to the spare bed.  
  
Katie already started yawning and her eyelids were barely staying open. She nodded obediently.  
  
"Now, go to sleep. You have to to wake up early."  
  
She nodded again, and crawled on top of Oliver's spare bed. The night was too warm to put any covers on.  
  
"Goodnight," Oliver told her, turning on his side. But, the little girl was already sleeping. When he woke up the next morning, the spare bed was empty.  
  
_


	3. Chapter 3: I'm Stuck with You Again

  
**Title:** When We Were Little  
**Author name:** Allie-Marina  
**Category:** Romance  
**Sub Category:** Humor/Angst  
**Keywords:** Katie Oliver friendship  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, QTTA  
**Summary:** They get stuck together _again._ And summer ends.  
**DISCLAIMER:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.   
**Author notes:** Hi! I heart my reviewers with all of my heart. Haha. Joke, I'm good. No, but really. Thanks to Laura again for the BETA. Anways…

Ancient Runes. _Great_.  
  
He planned on avoiding Katie by sitting in the back of the room, but her voice was loud enough so that he could hear her talking with Fred.  
  
"So what?" Katie demanded of Fred. "Are you calling me a _prude_?"  
  
Wood looked up. A _what_? But didn't he hear...?  
  
George grinned, sitting on Katie's other side. "No, not _exactly_. But come on! It's been nearly a_ year_ and what have you two done? Nothing!"  
  
Angelina said smartly, "Even if she had, do you really think she would tell either of you?"  
  
"No, I wouldn't," Katie said. "What I do should be of no concern to you."  
  
Strangely, Wood felt relieved. Then again, he also felt a little guilty about jumping to conclusions about her. That, and it wasn't polite to eavesdrop.  
  
Professor Terentius glided into the room, her robes flowing behind her. "I've corrected your group assignments, everyone."  
  
"Who did the best?" a Slytherin, Bletchly, asked.  
  
Terentius quickly flipped through the papers, looking for the highest score. "Ah!" she exclaimed, "Here! Katie Bell and Oliver Wood!"  
  
Katie felt her face go hot, as the eyes of the class fell upon her. She put a palm on her cheek, and averted her eyes from the smirking Weasleys. "They got all the answers correct _plus_ the bonus! Fifteen points to Gryffindor."  
  
"Now," Professor Terentius went on. "You will get with your same partners--"  
  
"What?" exclaimed Katie a little too loudly. The class looked at her again.  
  
Wood rolled his eyes. Not _this _again.  
  
After the class scattered into their respective groups, Katie silently walked up to Professor Terentius's desk. She cleared her throat, demanding the teacher's attention.  
  
"Yes, Miss Bell, Mister Wood?" she asked.  
  
"Mister Wood?" Katie asked, confused, and looked to her left, where indeed, Wood had appeared.  
  
"I was, I mean, he and I were _both_ wondering if we could change partners?" Katie asked, sweetly. "Please?"  
  
"Yeah, _please_?" Wood added.   
  
Professor Terentius looked from her favorite fifth year to her favorite seventh year and back again. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that."  
  
Katie frowned, "Well why not?"  
  
"Yeah, why not?" Wood mimicked.  
  
Professor Terentius looked past them to the students at their seats. "Everyone has already started working. It wouldn't be fair to pull them out of their groups now."  
  
"Then can I work alone?" Katie pleaded.  
  
Wood gave Katie a sideways glare.  
  
"I don't understand," continued the Professor. "You did such a great job on that last assignment. Obviously you work very _well together."  
  
Wood froze. They worked well together? __Very well?  
  
Katie scoffed at the Ancient Runes Professor. "No, we don't! I ended up doing all the work!"  
  
"What!" objected Wood.  
  
"I don't want to hear it!" the Professor exclaimed, raising her hands in protest. "Either you work together or you __fail."  
  
Katie and Wood quickly shut up.  
  
Katie took the paper back to her seat and wrote the heading at the top of it. She looked up at Wood who was standing over her. "What? Do you__ like to fail or something?"  
  
Wood glared at her. "No."  
  
"Then sit down for Merlin's sake."  
  
"Say please," Wood told her.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Say please or I won't sit down," he said defiantly.   
  
"If you _don't_ sit down, then you'll fail," she stated.  
  
"If I don't sit down, we'll_ both_ fail," he reminded her. 'How hard is it to say please?' he thought.  
  
"Then sit _down_," she said bluntly.  
  
"Not until you say please, Bell."  
  
"Please, Bell," Katie repeated with a sarcastic tone.  
  
He would have smirked if she hadn't been looking at him. "No. Don't be daft."  
  
"I'm not daft._ You're_ being daft. Making me beg you to sit down? Honestly!"  
  
"Then I _won't_ sit down, and we'll both fail," he grinned, relishing her torment.  
  
"What is your problem?" Katie demanded. "Is this good enough for you: Dearest Mister Oliver Wood, you have been __cordially invited to take a seat by Miss Katie Bell. She would very much _appreciate_ it if you would plant your arse in this chair here, so that you and she can complete the assignment that the Professor has assigned,__ please?"  
  
Wood was smirking evilly at her. "Well?" she prompted impatiently. "Good enough?"  
  
Wood snapped out of his gaze. He had been amused by the expressiveness in Katie's emerald eyes, as she spoke emphatically, sarcastically. "Great," he managed to mutter, before lowering himself into the chair next to her.  
  
They managed to answer and translate some of the questions with out arguing about them. They disagreed over some of the symbols' meanings, and Katie argued that the context showed that it meant otherwise, while Wood went on about how she was an insufferable know-it-all.  
  
That familiar urge to leave the room appeared as the class packed up. Katie had been twirling the necklace she was wearing around her fingers as she thought. She was interrupted when Professor Terentius came up behind Katie and Wood and told them that class was over, they could leave now.  
  
"But we aren't done, Professor!" Katie exclaimed.  
  
"Well, if you hadn't been _arguing_ with me and Mister Wood all class, maybe you would have gotten some work done, yeah? Finish it tonight, hand it in tomorrow."  
  
Katie was about to object again, when she was tugged out of the room by Wood, who had grabbed a hold of her wrist. When she was out in the hall, she broke out of his grasp. "I didn't _say_ you could touch me, Wood."  
  
Wood rolled his eyes. "There's no Quidditch tonight, we can do the work in the common room."  
  
"Fine," Katie relented.  
  
Wood lingered for a moment in the hallway with Katie. Then he sighed and started walking away.  
  
***  
  
"I don't know," Katie said to Alicia in the common room before she was supposed to meet Wood to finish the assignment. "I'd rather be doing anything else then Ancient Runes work with Wood right now."  
  
"When is he supposed to be here?" Alicia asked, sitting on the couch and putting her feet up on the coffee table.  
  
Katie glanced at her wrist watch. "That's really __nice of him to be late," she said in a sarcastic tone. "If he actually shows up, I'm in my dorm."  
  
Alicia nodded as she watched Katie run up the dormitory stairs.   
  
Behind her, the portrait opened and Wood walked through. 'He's got horrible timing,' Angelina observed.  
  
Wood bounded right up to Alicia. "Hi," he said in friendly tone. "Have you seen Bell around? I'm supposed to meet her here for-"  
  
"Ancient Runes?" Alicia finished for him. "Yeah, she__ was here, she's just gone up to our dormitory."  
  
"Great," Wood muttered. He set his books down on the coffee table next to Alicia's feet.  
  
Just as he was about to go up the stairs to Katie's dorm, she came hopping down the steps in casual clothes. She'd put her brown hair into a ponytail at the top of her head and was looking rather comfortable in sweatpants and a long sleeve t-shirt that she had gotten at a Holyhead Harpies match.  
  
"You're late," he told her.  
  
"I am _not_," she retorted. "_You_ were the one who was late, so I decided to take advantage of the extra time."  
  
"Whatever," he murmured, throwing himself back onto the couch.  
  
"Now, which questions do you want to answer?" she asked him, sitting on the floor, next to the coffee table.  
  
"Why are you asking _me_?" Wood asked.  
  
"Simple. If you don't have _everything_ go your way, you have a temper tantrum," she stated lightly.  
  
"Do not," he objected.  
  
"Do too," she replied, as an instinct. 'This seems oddly familiar,' Katie thought.  
  
"Fine," he said. He took the paper that Katie had been holding out to him and quickly glanced over it. "There's only eight questions left, so I'll do the odd numbers. You can do the evens."  
  
"Fine," Katie said.  
  
"Fine."  
  
They had started working quietly again. Wood hated the silence. He'd much rather be arguing with her then pretending to get along with her. But, Katie didn't notice. She had been twirling her ponytail as she was concentrating on the task at hand.  
  
He watched her as she was sitting on the floor with her legs crossed. Her concentration was disrupted, and she looked up at Wood, who quickly looked away.  
  
She stared for a second, looking bothered. Wood casually glanced up at her. After a few moments of her staring into his deep brown eyes, he's begun to feel… funny. "What are you staring at?" he demanded.  
  
She bit her lip nervously. "I need help," she stated quietly, embarrassed to be asking Wood's help.  
  
"What?" he asked surprised.  
  
"I just can't read this symbol here, it looks like it's drawn wrong," she said.  
  
"Let me see," he told her.  
  
Katie got to her feet, and walked over to where Wood was sitting. Without hesitation, she sat right next to him on the couch.  
  
"This one here," she said quietly.  
  
He took the paper from her, careful not to look into her eyes. As she sat peering over Wood's shoulder, he began to feel a little too warm. She was sitting too close to him. He couldn't think.  
  
He turned back to the paper where the symbols he had been looking at suddenly became ordinary squiggles on the paper that meant nothing to him. He was quickly losing concentration.   
  
"Well?" she prompted impatiently.  
  
"I'm working on it!" he said, frustratedly. He looked again. He could just make out two separate symbols linked together by a meaningless line that must have been a mistake.  
  
"It's a horse symbol and a lake symbol linked together," he finally concluded.  
  
Katie took the paper back from him. "That's odd," she said, getting to her feet.  
  
It was suddenly a lot easier to breathe and think for Wood. "What's odd? That's what they _are_, Bell."  
  
Katie sat herself on the floor again. "I know. I'm not __challenging you on this one. It's just that..." she trailed off. She looked worried.  
  
"What?" he demanded.  
  
"You _do_ know what they mean don't you?" Katie asked him.  
  
Wood hesitated. "Partnership...and love," he managed to mutter, feeling warm once again.  
  
Katie nodded. Then she exclaimed a little_ too_ brightly, "It's _just_ Divination by Runes. We shouldn't rely on it. You__ know how McGonagall feels about Divination..."  
  
"Yeah," he agreed quietly, avoiding her eyes again. "Anyway, I'm done."  
  
"Me too," Katie answered. "I'll just take your paper, and we'll hand it in tomorrow."  
  
She got to her knees and gathered all the papers up and shuffled them into one, neat packet.  
  
She stood in front of him for a second. ' What are you supposed to say to someone who hates you?' she thought to herself. "Bye," she muttered quickly and started up the stairs to her room.  
  
When she got up to her dorm, she walked in to find Alicia and Angelina talking. "How was it?" Angelina asked.  
  
"I'm glad it's over," Katie told them.   
  
"I can never understand why you don't like him, Katie," Alicia mused. "He's always been nice to me."  
  
"Exactly," Katie said, taking a seat on her bed. "He's __not nice to me. Ever."  
  
"Ever?" Angelina asked.  
  
"Come on, aren't you exaggerating?" Alicia asked.  
  
"Not really," Katie muttered. "He __was nice when we were _little_."  
  
"But you used to be friends with him in third year and before that, right?" Alicia asked again.  
  
Katie shrugged. "I thought so."  
  
"What happened?" Angelina asked.  
  
"I don't know. When we were little, when nothing mattered, I actually used to spend the summers in Scotland with him."  
  
Alicia stared, disbelievingly. Katie continued, "My Gram lives down the block from the Woods'."  
  
"The summers?"  
  
"Yup. I try not to dwell on it," Katie grinned, standing up again. "But, honestly - and don't you tell him this - but sometimes... I miss him... The _old_ him at least."  
  
"Aww," Angelina and Alicia cooed.  
  
"Shut up!" Katie demanded smacking them over the head with a pillow.   
  
Angelina and Alicia giggled. Katie rolled her eyes at them. "Anyway," she said. "I've got to meet Rhys."  
  
***  
  
Divination by Runes was probably the biggest waste of time in Wood's life, although it had bothered him quite a bit that the words 'partnership' and 'love' were used in the same sentence.  
  
Wood shifted in his bed and pulled back the curtain to read his alarm clock. It was three o'clock in the morning and he was still thinking about that blasted girl. That blasted girl. His best _friend's_ blasted girl to be exact.  
  
***********  
  
That was how it went, on clear summer nights, when the moon was full, Katie would sneak over to Oliver's house. Only on the clear nights, she would climb the trellis until she got to the roof below his window. He never understood how she did it, but she did. Sometimes, if he was lucky, Katie would wake him up and tell him she was leaving, when the sun had not quite risen. They had never gotten caught.   
  
He had gotten used to her climbing through the window, so he would leave his window open for her, and he pushed a table beneath the window so she didn't have to fall into his room anymore. Even when he told her that it wasn't safe to climb the trellis, she would do it anyway.   
  
He was the only person she knew in the whole neighborhood, and without him life around town was boring.  
  
She taught him how to catch a firefly without squishing it, and he helped her learn how to read. She had been confusing 'b' and 'd' and 'p' and 'q' quite a bit.  
  
One day at the end of the summer, Katie and Oliver were kneeling over an earthworm inching along in the mud.  
  
Katie's face was scrunched up in disgust, as it wriggled along. "That's so gross!" she whined.  
  
"It is not!" Oliver objected, picking it up.  
  
Katie quickly got to her feet and backed away when Oliver held it up to her. "You scared of a wee worm?" he sniggered.  
  
"I'm _not_ scared, it's just disgusting," she defended, crossing her arms. "I'm __brave enough to climb the roof. Why would I be scared of a worm?"  
  
"Because you're a girl," Oliver said, putting the earthworm back into the mud.  
  
"So? I _still _climb the roof. Worms are gross."  
  
"Girls get grossed out easily," he said smugly, standing up, wiping his hands on his pants.  
  
"Do not."  
  
"Do too."  
  
"So do_ boys_," Katie said matter-of-factly.  
  
"Nuh-uh," Oliver frowned.  
  
"Uh-huh!" Katie insisted, grinning.  
  
He walked right up to her. "When?"  
  
Just then, Katie put her hands on Oliver's shoulders, hoisted herself onto her tip-toes, and planted a short kiss on Oliver's unsuspecting lips.  
  
She backed off immediately. Oliver stared at her, shocked, with his jaw dropped.  
  
"See?" Katie asked, smugly. She was rather surprised with herself. She had never kissed a boy before, and she wondered if she had done it right.  
  
Oliver just stood there, not moving. He didn't look happy. He just looked bewildered.  
  
"Uh-oh!" Katie managed, before scampering off as fast as her feet could carry her.  
  
As soon as Katie ran, Oliver ran as well. Into his house.  
  
When he got inside, he shouted, "Water! __Water! I need water!"  
  
His father who had been reading the Daily Prophet quickly popped up from his seat, and filled a glass for his son. "What happened?" Mr. Wood asked.  
  
Oliver spit out the water into the sink, and wiped his mouth. He looked up at his father, and scrunched up his face. "Katie __kissed me! Now I'm going to get some kind of__ girl sickness!"  
  
Mr. Wood gave a hearty laugh. "It happens to the best of us."  
  
Oliver gave him quite a glare and walked away into his living room.  
  
Katie didn't come over the next day, and she didn't come on the next clear night. It was then that Oliver realized that Katie had gone back to Manchester.  
  
Summer was over._


	4. Chapter 4: Man, I Hate You

**Title:** When We Were Little  
**Author name:** Allie-Marina  
**Category:** Romance  
**Sub Category:** Humor/Angst  
**Keywords:** Oliver Katie friendship  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** First three books  
**Summary:** It's Valentine's Day and it is either very rewarding or it just stinks, depending on if you are Oliver or if you are Katie. Katie turns sixteen and is taken out of school. Some important things are said. Meanwhile, it's the duo's third summer together, and they come across the first bump in the road.  
**DISCLAIMER:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. May included lines and ideas from Friends, Dawson's Creek, Everwood, Smallville, As Told by Ginger, the Great Gatsby, The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson, to name just a few.  
**Author notes: **This chapter may be a little slow moving, but bear with it, alright???? It's important! Thanks to Laura and Christina for the BETA's! I heart you all!

Gryffindor first year Ryan Bell sped down the Grand Staircase the next day, Friday, being chased by a boy who was easily recognized as Dennis Creevey.   
  
"You can't catch me!" Ryan declared, setting out down another staircase closer to the ground floor. He had been laughing maniacally the whole way.  
  
"Give me back my camera!" Dennis demanded a few steps behind Ryan.  
  
Ryan was almost to the ground level when he heard, in a distinctly familiar female voice, "_Locomoto mortis!" _Suddenly, his legs wouldn't budge from the spot he was standing at. A leg-locker. Dennis stood in front of Ryan and put his hands on his waist.  
  
"Give it back, now!" Dennis demanded, grinning smugly.  
  
"Fine," Ryan relented as he handed the camera to Dennis.  
  
Dennis grinned at something over Ryan's shoulder. "Thank you," he said to it.  
  
"No problem," said the voice. Ryan craned his neck and turned at his torso to see his sister, Katie, standing behind him with her boyfriend.  
  
"You!" Ryan glared at her.  
  
"Me," Katie snapped. "What are you doing?"  
  
"Well, I_ was_ in the process of stealing Dennis's camera for Fred and George's purposes," Ryan drawled, grinning mischievously.  
  
"Figures," Rhys put in, grinning. "A little joke or two?"  
  
"And how," Ryan admitted.  
  
Dennis had already left Ryan there, in a leg locking curse set on him by his sister. "Next time you get pigeoned into doing something for those twins, I swear, you'd better get paid," Katie told him.  
  
"Paid?" Ryan repeated incredulously.  
  
"Absolutely," Katie replied, "'cause then I'm going to have to write home to Mum and tell her what a bad little boy you have been. And in order to stop me, you'll have to pay me off."  
  
Rhys sniggered. "Isn't that blackmail?"  
  
Katie turned to look at Rhys, raising an eyebrow. "What's your point?"  
  
"Can you please let me out of this curse?" Ryan called. Rhys raised his wand, but Katie put a hand on his arm to stop him.  
  
"No," she warned, "don't. I want him to learn a lesson and think really hard before following the Weasleys."  
  
"Oh, come on!" Ryan wailed at Rhys.  
  
Rhys smiled sympathetically at the boy in front of him. Ryan looked a lot like Katie, except that his hair was sandy brown and not nearly black like his sisters. "Sorry, sport," Rhys told him.  
  
Rhys followed Katie as she climbed the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower. Ryan called out after Rhys, "You aren't her slave! You're a free man! FREE ME!"  
  
"Don't," Katie warned Rhys.  
  
"Oddsbodikins" Rhys said to Sir Cadogan, ignoring the wailing boy. Sir Cadogan had been the portrait for Gryffindor Tower ever since Halloween, when the Fat Lady's portrait had been ruined by Sirius Black when he'd tried to get into the common room. Sir Cadogan's face fell because he couldn't torment Katie and Rhys about not knowing the password. Reluctantly, he swung the entrance open and they crawled through.  
  
"So," Katie started, when she found a couch in a secluded area of the common room.  
  
"So," Rhys replied, sitting next to her.  
  
"It's Valentine's Day," she said.  
  
"I know," he said. He pulled out a pink colored paper from one of his many pockets. "I made you a card."  
  
Katie took the card from him. She read out loud, "'Happy Valentine's Day...to someone who has everything: good looks, charm, intelligence, personality, and best of all...me! Love, Rhys.'" She crooned, "Oh, the cat on it is so cute!"  
  
He'd charmed it so it had an image of a kitten rolling across the page. "I thought you'd like it," Rhys grinned.  
  
Of course Katie liked it, but it wasn't exactly what she was expecting. "Oh yeah, and since your birthday is in two days, I also have a gift for you." He pulled out a box-looking thing wrapped in silver paper.  
  
He put it in front of Katie on the table. She grinned up at him. "Are you sure you don't want to wait and give it to me two days from now?" she asked.  
  
"I'm positive! Hurry up and open it!" he smiled, pleading impatiently.  
  
She put the gift on her lap and tore through the wrapping to see a sleek black leather case, with silver words stamped across it, reading _Broomstick Servicing Kit.   
  
"_Wow!" Katie exclaimed, unzipping the case to look inside. It had everything, handle polish, silver tail-twig clippers, a _Handbook of Do-it-yourself Broom care_, and even a compass for long trips. "Thank you!" she said, closing the case and set it aside. She opened her arms to hug Rhys and he responded with the same motion. "You are the _best!_" she told him while in his arms. She looked up to him, waiting for him to finally give her a_ real _kiss. But, it didn't happen.  
  
***  
In the first place, Valentine's Day _sucks._ It sucks more when you're sitting across the way from a happy couple giving and receiving Valentine's Day cards. Especially when one of those people _happens_ to be the person for whom you've been harboring secret, _unidentified feelings for several years, and the other is your best friend.   
  
Wood had tried not to watch them, but curiosity did him in.  
  
It wasn't that Wood hadn't gotten any cards that February fourteenth, because he had. In fact, he had probably gotten the most out of anybody in the school, with the exception of Cedric Diggory. The same Cedric Diggory that had beaten Gryffindor in the first match of the year.  
  
He just didn't want to have to deal with all the cards. He'd accepted them all in acquiescence, with a smile and a thank you. He'd gotten some "invitations" to do some "things" with some girls, also. That wasn't new or anything, especially since he __had accepted a few of those "invitations" in the past.  
  
However, he just couldn't watch the fluff and mush that was being displayed in front of his eyes. So, he rose to his feet and left the common room through the portrait hole. He was slowly making his way down the Grand Staircase when he'd heard someone call out, "Free me, _please."  
  
_Wood turned around to see Ryan Bell, kin to the girl who was the cause of Wood's seemingly-permanent cranky state, standing on a stair. "What?" Wood asked, confused.  
  
"Free me, _please,_" Ryan repeated.  
  
"Like I said," Wood clarified. "What?"  
  
Ryan groaned. "I'm in a leg-locker curse! Get me out of it!"  
  
Wood walked the last few steps to where the young boy was standing. Wood has known Ryan since the boy had been two, and now he was going to school with him. "How did that happen?" Wood asked him, smirking at the fact that no matter how hard Ryan tried to break out the curse, it was useless.  
  
"My bloody sister," Ryan ground out, "and then she left me here!"  
  
Wood nodded, trying to imagine Katie setting curses on her little brother, and let Ryan out of the curse. Ryan straightened himself out, stretching his sore legs. "Now I see why you can't stand her," Ryan muttered.  
  
"Yeah," Wood replied, while scratching the back of his head. He idly wondered how Ryan would know anything about how he felt about his sister.  
  
"Anyway," Ryan continued. "Thanks for letting me out. I'm going to go _kill_ Kathryn now. Have a jolly Valentine's Day, and use protection!"  
  
Ryan started up to Gryffindor tower again, leaving Wood wondering where little Ryan Bell had learned such things. Ryan crawled through the portrait hole, but didn't find Katie anywhere.  
  
Giving up his search very easily, Ryan climbed the stairs to his first year dormitory. On his bed, his and Katie's owl Grigori sat waiting patiently. Ryan reached out to the bird and patted him on the back of his head.  
  
He recognized his mother's handwriting very easily and opened the letter.  
  
Dear Ryan and Katie,   
  
I hope you are staying out of trouble, Ryan, and that you are training hard in Quidditch, Katie. You've both been slacking in writing letters home, so I can only assume that you are being kept busy with your school work and that life is going well for you. Before I forget, Happy Valentine's Day. Katie, your birthday gift is enclosed in the box accompanied with this letter.   
However, this letter is sent to you with a heart of sadness. Gram Bell's condition is deteriorating quickly. She doesn't have much time left, the medi-Wizards have told us. I'm going to pull you both out of school on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Katie, yes, I understand that you have a match next Saturday, but it is very important that you spend time with your Grandmother. I'm sure if you explain to Oliver the importance of this absence, he won't be too cross.  
  
I will see you on Sunday.   
  
Love,   
Mum  
  
  
Ryan stared at the paper. His Grandmum was dying. He stood up from his bed, determined to find his sister and left the dormitory.  
  
He ran down to the Quidditch pitch and waited in the stands for the practice to end. When it did, Katie was arguing with Wood about the unlikeliness of a certain play.  
  
"We'll never need to use that play!" Katie insisted.  
  
"Of course you will," he retorted, off handedly, preparing himself for another bickering session that he'd gotten so accustomed to having with her.  
  
Katie would have argued further, however, Ryan tugged impatiently at Katie's arm. She stopped glaring at Wood and looked down at her brother. "What is it?" she asked.  
  
"Important - need - talk - now," Ryan pleaded. Katie immediately followed Ryan off the pitch, as Wood stared after her. "Read this," Ryan ordered, holding out the letter.  
  
Katie took it from him and her eyes quickly scanned over it. When she was done, she folded it up again, and looked at her brother, not knowing what to say. Her grandmother…  
  
Ryan had grabbed her side and hugged her. He started sobbing into her shoulder, and she patted his head protectively.   
  
He backed away and wiped at his eyes. "I'm going to have to change out of these Quidditch robes now," she told him softly. "Are you going to be all right?"  
  
Ryan nodded slightly. "I'm fine."  
  
"Are you sure?" she asked cautiously.  
  
"Yeah," he croaked. "Fine."  
  
"All right...but if you need me," she said, "I'll be up soon."  
  
He nodded and slowly started up the dirt path to the school. Katie sauntered into the team room and locked her broomstick into her locker.  Sighing deeply, she turned around to see Wood, Alicia and Angelina staring at her. "What are you looking at?" she asked them.  
  
"You've got a tear rolling down your cheek," Angelina told Katie in a soft voice.  
  
"Oh, do I?" Katie asked and wiped the tear away.  
  
"Something wrong?" Alicia asked.  
  
Katie thought of telling them, but Wood was standing there and she was more then ninety-nine percent sure that he would not care. "It's nothing," Katie lied. "It's just a bit of dust."  
  
"Oh, okay," the girls chorused, none of the three believing a word of it.  
  
***  
  
It was Sunday, and Katie's birthday. Fred and George sang her their special rendition of the Happy Birthday song, and they had both given her all the wizarding trading cards that she had not yet collected. Alicia and Angelina invested in an engraved bracelet that said _Friends Always and Forever, Katie + Angelina + Alicia, Chasers for Life.  
  
_Sunday was also the day that Katie and Ryan were to be taken out of school to see their grandmother. This meant that Katie would be missing two very important practices, just a week before a match. Wood, she was convinced, was going to kill her.  
  
When Katie had her necessities packed, she slung the bag over her shoulder and went looking for Wood to tell him that she wouldn't be around that week. She'd found him in the first place that she looked, the Quidditch pitch.  
  
She walked out on to the pitch and looked up and indeed saw Wood flying. Shielding her eyes from the sun, she called to him, "Wood!"  
  
He looked down to see Katie below him. He wondered why she had a bag slung over her shoulder on the weekend. "What?" he called from the air.  
  
"Could you come down here?" she asked, in an agitated voice. Then she added, "Please?"  
  
He flew down and landed next to her. "What is it?"  
  
"I'm leaving school until Wednesday night, I won't be here for tomorrow's or Wednesday's practices," she told him.  
  
He'd immediately started feeling angry. _No one _misses practice, especially not two in a row. And especially not the week before a match!! Especially not Katie. "What??" he roared.  
  
"I already told you."  
  
"But we've got a match on _Saturday_! We need to train!"  
  
"Wood, it isn't like I'm going to forget how to play Quidditch over three days!" she said, feeling rather irritated.  
  
"You are _so_ greedy and selfish!" he said to her, pointing a finger. "You have a commitment to a _team, _Bell. If you can't remember that, then maybe you should quit!"  
  
That last remark felt like a slap in the face. She was selfish? She was giving herself, giving her time to spend it with her grandmother. He couldn't be more wrong.  
  
Wasn't he the one who put everything behind Quidditch in his manic obsession to win the Cup? Wasn't that selfish? "Man, I hate you," she bit out, backing away from him.  
  
He watched her run away. Had he made her cry? He couldn't tell, but Katie never cried, unless something was very wrong.  
  
That outward declaration of hatred hit Wood hard. She'd never said that to him before, and he's always had a feeling that she resented him, but the declaration confirmed it. As for him, he's told himself that he hated Bell at least once a day, but he'd never actually said it out loud, much less to her face. Nor did he ever really mean it.  
  
***  
  
That horrible remark that Wood had made to Katie offset everything good about her birthday. It was supposed to be a special birthday, now that she was sixteen. But Wood had easily ruined it with reckless abandon, his words cut deep. _Selfish, greedy, you should quit.  
_  
She got up to the Entrance Hall where Ryan was waiting for her. He saw the tears rolling down his sister's cheek. He was about to ask her what had made her cry, but thought better of it. He already knew. He knew how Wood could be, especially when it came to his sister.  
  
He smiled weakly at her. "Happy Birthday," he said lightly. He pulled out the box that he hid beneath his pillow earlier.  
  
Katie smiled back, wiping away the wetness from her cheeks. She took the box from him and read the card. "From, Mum and Dad," it said. Then, in red ink that did not match the black ink, it said "From Ryan, too." She opened the box and smiled at the eccentric gift. It was a Galilean thermometer. She'd wanted one ever since she saw them in the Apothecary at Diagon Alley.  
  
"Thank you," she smiled at Ryan. "It's wonderful."  
  
"Happy Birthday, Miss Bell," said a gruff, familiar voice behind her. She turned around to see Headmaster Dumbledore standing there with a twinkle in his eye.   
  
"Thank you, sir," Katie replied with a nod.  
  
"Sixteen, is it? Yes, the age where you feel like you don't know anything at all, but you do know more than you give yourself credit for. It's an age that comes with great wisdom and emotion. I suggest you use it wisely," Dumbledore told her.  
  
Ryan looked confusedly up at his sister, but she'd looked if possible, even more confused than Ryan did. Katie nodded as if she understood which she didn't.  
  
They'd followed Dumbledore to the horseless carriages. Dumbledore had been speaking to Katie most of the way, congratulating her for being top of her class, and about how she should consider taking muggle classes, because Dumbledore felt that she would make a very good ambassador to the Muggle World.  
  
They'd passed Wood who was just coming off the Quidditch pitch. He'd caught Katie's eye and she glared at him. As they past, Wood watched them walk off, Dumbledore leading the way.  
  
Before they crawled into the carriage Dumbledore advised them both to be strong for Gram, and they'd both nodded their heads obediently.  
  
*************  
In the two summers that had passed since Katie had __literally fallen into Oliver's life, they'd been punished for their excessive mischief at least once a week for those first two summers.   
  
However, this summer, the third, was quite different for Oliver. He was now eleven and would be boarding the Hogwarts Express the coming September first.  
  
"When I get to Hogwarts, It's going to be great, really," Oliver had told Katie one day during that summer.  
  
"Uh-huh," Katie nodded, lying back on the grass while gazing up at the clouds.  
  
He lied down on his side to face her. "Really, it is," he'd insisted, grinning. "I'm so excited."  
  
Katie brought her hands up to support her head. "I know," she muttered. "You've told me a million times."  
  
"I'm getting my own wand this week, you know," he went on excitedly.  
  
"I know," she said. He'd told her all of this before. Once, or twice, everyday, all summer. She was getting sick of it. "D'you want to do something?" she asked, hopefully.  
  
"Like what?" Oliver asked.  
  
Katie sat up and hugged her knees. "I don't know. We could play a game."  
  
"What game?"  
  
"I don't know," she said thoughtfully.  
  
"We could play Hogwarts!" Oliver suggested. Katie tried not to groan. She didn't want to talk about how Oliver was going to leave her and go to Hogwarts.   
  
She shook her head, "Actually, I think my Dad's calling me," she said standing up.  
  
Oliver frowned. "I didn't hear anything."  
  
"I did, I swear," Katie lied, crossing her fingers behind her back.  
  
"Are you sure?" Oliver asked, getting to his feet.   
  
"Oh, yes. I'm sure," she lied again. "I don't want him to get cross, so I should go."  
  
It was an awkward moment for both of them. He couldn't think of a time that she had been so eager to leave. Of, course there was that one time that she kissed him and ran, but he ran, too. Probably for the same reason.  
  
"Well...okay then," Oliver said hesitantly. "Will you come by tomorrow?"  
  
The nine and (almost) a-half-year-old girl nodded. "Bye," she said, and turned to walk off.  
  
***  
The next day, Katie was sitting atop Oliver's lookout with him. He had been talking about Hogwarts _again_. It was the constant reminder of what she would be missing out on for the next two years.   
  
Katie groaned out loud. "This is _boring_," she said, plainly.  
  
"What's boring?" Oliver asked.  
  
"You are. Hogwarts. Blah, blah, _blah_!" she spat. Oliver stared at her, thoroughly confused.  
  
"I don't want to hear about it!" she continued. Oliver didn't know what to say. Were he and Katie having a fight?  
  
"Why not?" he asked. "Aren't you happy for me?"  
  
"No!" Katie said, her eyes narrowing. "I'm not happy that you're leaving and going to the _best place in the world_ without me!"  
  
Oliver frowned. "Well, I'm sorry I was born before you!"  
  
"No! That isn't it!" Katie blinked wildly. "Everything is changing now," she said.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Oliver asked.  
  
"You're going off to do magic and all, and we aren't equal anymore," she said, turning away.   
  
"Are you afraid we aren't going to be friends anymore?" Oliver asked her, trying to get her to look at him.   
  
It took Katie a while to answer. She bit her lip. "Maybe," she muttered. "You're going to meet all those new people who can do magic, too, who are your age, and you'll forget about me."  
  
"Forget about you?" Oliver asked, standing there, almost shocked. "None of those people are ever going to climb up to my window every summer."  
  
Through her anger, Katie actually grinned. "So, you won't forget me?"  
  
"Of course not," he said, reassuringly. "Let's shake on it."  
  
"No, let's pinky swear."  
  
"Okay."  
  
And they did. After that, Katie didn't mind so much about hearing Oliver talk about Hogwarts and she was excited for the letter that he had promised to write to her on his first day._


	5. Chapter 5: Cold Hearted Bastard

**Title:** When We Were Little  
**Author name:** Allie-Marina  
**Category:** Romance  
**Sub Category:** Humor/Angst  
**Keywords:** Oliver Katie flashback  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** First three books  
**Summary:** Katie visits Gram, Oliver takes a shower (grins) and does some thinking, while Alicia can read people like books. Especially our friend Wood.  
**DISCLAIMER:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. May included lines from Friends, Dawson's Creek, Everwood, Smallville, As Told by Ginger, the Great Gatsby, The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson, Love Story to name just a few.  
**Author notes:** Ahhhhh, just a warning, it's a little dramatic, this chapter, but bare with it, please. There is no flashback. A HUGE thank you to my first run BETA Christina, and the divine intervention of the wonderful Araanaz, who with out her help, this chapter would have been really, really bad. Tee hee! Thanks to my reviewers! I got to 50 reviews in four chapters!!!On with the chapter!

Katie was feeling very light-headed, while Ryan looked like he was about to faint. 

They were standing outside the house where they'd spent most of their summers, in the cold of February, arms crossed. 

Katie's Dad and Mum were already inside. Katie and Ryan, however, were hesitant on entering, not knowing what to expect. The unknown scared them. 

Katie readjusted her arms and took a deep breath. She could see her breath in the air, as it floated away. She looked down at her brother. "Maybe we ought to go inside, right?" 

Ryan bit his bottom lip and nodded slightly. "You first." 

"Fine," Katie said, and took Ryan's hand, trailing him behind her. They went into the house and an odd silence fell over the two. 

They slowly entered the living room where they knew they would find everyone. They saw their Grandfather, and he waved them in. "Clarisse..." he said. "The children are here." 

Gram had been sitting in her favorite arm chair the whole while. Katie was relieved to see that Gram was looking better than she had expected, although she was looking rather weak, she still had that warm glint in her eyes. 

At first Katie didn't know how to act or what to say. She could see that her younger brother was having a worse time of it, if that was possible. But as time passed, the wall came down and in time they were conversing quite normally. Katie actually laughed.

"You have such a beautiful laugh..." Gram put in loftily. Katie just smiled softly. 

"You always knew how to get me laughing, Katie," Gram went on, tossing her head to the side, smiling. "By the way, how is your friend Oliver?" 

Katie stopped, and waved the question off. There was no need to show any anger towards the boy while in her Grandmother's presence. "He's fine, Gram." 

For the first time, Ryan spoke. "They aren't friends." 

Katie shot a glare at her brother as Gram tutted. Her smile faltered, exactly what Katie didn't want. She would have hexed Ryan if she were allowed to use magic outside school. "Oh ... such a shame. You two together always had me smiling," Gram reminisced. 

Katie nodded absently, a sadness of sorts growing in her chest. "Make up with him, will you, dear?" Gram suddenly pleaded. "It would be so wonderful to have you two together again." 

*** 

On Wednesday, Katie and Ryan had to say good-bye to Gram for the last time. They didn't want to leave Gram, but she'd insisted that they go to school, work very hard to achieve their dreams, and make her proud.

The Bell children did not cry in those last few seconds. They were trying their hardest to be strong for her, as Dumbledore had instructed. 

Rather, they had waited until they were almost back at school, Wednesday afternoon, in the horseless carriages. It was mainly Ryan sobbing audibly and silent tears down Katie's cheeks. 

When they had gotten back into the common room, Ryan ran up to his room, and demanded that no one disturb him. 

Katie was met by the solemn faces of her friends who weren't entirely sure of what to say. 

"How was it?" Rhys asked gently.

"How was it supposed to be?" Katie asked blankly. Rhys didn't answer her.

She sat in an arm chair staring into the fire, well aware that the eyes of her friends were still on her. It wasn't helping her upset mood.

Something caught inside of her throat, threatening to work its way out as an audible sob, but before it could, she stood up abruptly. She would not cry. "I'm going to the locker room," she announced. 

"Should I come, too?" Angelina asked, and Rhys was already standing up, waiting to accompany her. 

"No, I'd actually just like to be alone for a minute," she told them, trying her best for a smile, hoping it didn't look too artificial. If she was right, the locker room would be empty and it would be a place for her to sit and think.

*** 

At four thirty on Wednesday afternoon, Quidditch practice was finished. Four boys and only two girls made their way into their respective, separated sections of the locker rooms. 

The twins had been walking on either side of their Captain who had been nodding on cue, whenever the twins said anything that required a reaction. 

"I think we should get one of the girls to steal Davies's broomstick, hey?" Fred suggested when they had gotten inside. 

"Why would we want to do that for?" Harry asked incredulously. 

"So they'll have to forfeit at best," George answered as if he could read his twins mind. "At worst, he'll be flying a school broom. 

"Right," said Harry, rolling his eyes. "It's such a _Slytherin__ thing to do!" _

"What do you think, Wood?" Fred asked Oliver with a nudge. 

As if being woken up from a deep sleep, Oliver stood up from his position leaning against a locker. He looked between the three of his Quidditch mates. 

"Sorry, what?" he asked lazily. 

Fred scowled. "Sabotage, Wood! Sabotage!" 

Oliver's eyes widened. "Who's sabotaging who?" 

"No one to no one," Harry cut in, smirking, ending the confusion. Obviously, Wood had been in another world. 

Before the boys all climbed into the showers, Wood had to endure the twins remarks and catcalls as he walked around dressed in nothing but a scarlet and gold-trimmed towel wrapped around his waist.

As Oliver ran his hands through his hair while in the shower, he reflected on his tragically bored mood. The week, so far, really wasn't all that different. Rather, it just felt different. 

He'd gotten a new partner in Ancient Runes, as he had requested. A sixth year Hufflepuff. She agreed with all of Oliver's answers, not really caring. He had a feeling that this assignment was not going to be as successful as recent, past assignments. She didn't argue any of the answers. She was pretty, but she was boring.

Lathering his arms, Wood reasoned that being boring was better than being infinitely stubborn and argumentative, wasn't it? 

One more thing that did not work for Wood over these last days was the past two Quidditch practices. With one less Chaser there, his whole, planned out practices had been messed up. During passing drills, Oliver had nothing to do. He usually had two Chasers pass with each other, while one tried taking shots on him.

"Oi, Wood!" called Harry from outside the shower, making Wood jump as he was swiftly broken from his thoughts. 

"Yeah?" Wood called from inside the stall. 

"Have you _died_?" called Fred. "You're taking forever!" 

Wood realized had been in the showers for quite a long time, and called back to his team mates. "Just go on back without me if you're all so impatient!" 

"We have _zero_ tolerance for this nonsense, Mister Wood!" George called dramatically, in a voice that sounded eerily like McGonagall. "Good-_bye!" _

As Wood shut the steady stream of warm water down, he heard the door close and knew that he was the only one left in the boys section of the locker room. 

Quietly, he dried himself down and pulled on his school pants and a thin evergreen jumper over a black T-shirt. 

He walked to where the locker rooms joined. There were two rows of benches and a chalk board. Staring blankly at it, he sat himself on a bench. His eyes ran over the failed plans he had drawn out for the pre-game week's practices. Katie's name was crossed out. 

He looked away from the name, an odd feeling arising in his chest. As well her name should be crossed out. He didn't want a fifth year brat -even one with pretty eyes- ruining the practices he spent so much time planning. 

He shoved his hands into his pockets as he so often did, only to find the folded paper he had put there in Ancient Runes class. He slowly opened it just to see "Oliver Wood and Katie Bell," as well as half of the answers to all the questions, written in Katie's neat script, and the other half of the answers in Wood's less-than-neat print. 

His eyes traveled to the last question, dealing with Ancient Runes. The words 

in Katie's distinctive handwriting pounded in his head. Partnership and Love. 

He read Professor Terentius's comments. "15 points to Gryffindor! Great team work!" 

Wood scoffed at the comment, and with the motion of one hand, he crumpled the paper into a ball, letting it drop to his feet with an insignificant patter. 

Sighing deeply, he laid himself on the bench. He clasped his hands together and let them lye on his chest as he stared at the ceiling. He stared for a long time, feeling inexplicably empty, and not in the food sense. 

He idly heard the main door to the room open, but was to busy being empty, and for some reason, very angry with himself to care. A face appeared in front of him. It was Alicia. 

"Wood, what are you still doing here?" she asked, looking at him as if he was crazy. 

"Meditating," he told her, matter-of-factly. 

"Oh, I'm sure," she grinned. 

"No, really. See?" he said. "Ohm....Ohm....Ohm..." he hummed, closing his eyes. 

"You're _wallowing_, and it's all Katie's fault," Alicia said, poignantly. 

Wood sat up quickly and frowned. "Why do you say that?" 

"Because you've crumpled up her assignment here, and I'm willing to bet it was the last thing you did, before lying down here." 

"So what if it was?" he inquired. 

"She gets to you, doesn't she?" Alicia asked, taking a seat by him. 

"She makes me want to bang my head on the castle walls over, and over, and over, and over again," he said, nodding each time he said 'over.' 

Alicia frowned. "She's my best friend and she's a _really sweet girl, Wood. You just have to get to know her." _

Wood looked Alicia straight in the eye. "I _do know her. She used to be __my best friend, you remember." _

"Then what?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"What happened to make you hate her?" 

"I _don't_ really hate her," Wood said. "She hates me. She told me so." 

"She says she misses the old you, you know. Therefore, she can't hate you. She just wouldn't go to Honeyduke's with you," Alicia reasoned. 

"I wouldn't ask her," Wood retorted. 

"And that, my friend, is why you're stupid." 

"Huh?" Wood scowled. 

Alicia stood up and put her hands on her hips. Playing dumb obviously wasn't working in Alicia's favor anymore. "Are you so blind? Maybe everyone else is completely blind around here, but I'm _not blind, Wood! I'm not!" _

"What in Godric's name are you on about?" Wood asked, sounding panicked. 

"Oliver! You love Katie!" 

"WHAT?" 

"I might be the only one who sees it, but it's there, Oliver. Ever since you saw that-" 

"Alicia-" 

"Ravenclaw kissing Katie-" 

"You don't know what you're talking about-" 

"You've been angry with her-" 

"You think I'm _jealous_?" 

"You always thought being with Katie was in the bag-" 

"No, you're wrong-" 

"But you're friend beat you to it-" 

"Ridiculous-" 

"And you've been treating her like shit ever since, do you realize? You can't have Katie and it brasses you off! It _always has!" _

Silence. Wood looked away, glaring really hard at nothing at all. He felt like he was slowly being killed. "Damn," he muttered. 

Alicia wasn't done yet. "And do you know_ why she wasn't here these past two practices?" _

"Enlighten me," Wood told her. 

"She was visiting her sick Grandmother! She could die any day, you know, and yet you still treat Katie like garbage."

Wood didn't answer, he wasn't immediately sure of what to say; he just looked away again, incredible warmth creeping up his ears, and the back of his neck. "Her Grandmother - she's going to die?" he asked softly.

"Didn't you know that, Wood?"

"N-no. No, I didn't." he said. I just yelled at her and didn't even let her get a word in edge-wise, he thought guiltily. On her birthday. He felt like a cold-hearted bastard.

"Moreover, because Katie won't talk to you anymore, you fight with her everyday, because it's the only communication you two have! You don't_ want_ to want Katie, but you _do. You blame her for your moods, don't you? Merlin, Wood, admit it!" _

Wood slowly looked up at Alicia. "Admit what?" 

"You've always been in love with Katie." 

Wood clenched his eyes shut tightly, as well as his fists. He muttered, "Please, Alicia. _Please _don't tell anyone." 


	6. Chapter 6: Attempting to be Friendly

**Title:** When We Were Little  
**Author name:** Allie-Marina  
**Category:** Romance  
**Sub Category:** Humor/Angst  
**Keywords:** Oliver Katie friendship  
**Rating****:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** All Books  
**Summary:** Katie walks in on Alicia and Oliver's argument. Attempts at friendliness come from both parties, and the Ravenclaw match (little detail). Flashbacks and the meaning of friendship.  
**DISCLAIMER:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. May included lines from Friends, Dawson's Creek, Everwood, Smallville, As Told by Ginger, the Great Gatsby, The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson, Love Story to name just a few.  
**Author notes:** Thanks to Avi, Laura, Christina, Araanaz and Kristin for all of your input! It really helped a lot! I LOVE MY REVIEWERS!!!!!!!! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!!!

Katie walked leisurely to the locker room that same evening, her arms crossed, and deliberately dragging her feet. On her way there, she heard the Great Hall filled with animated chatter and laughter, but she did not go in. Instead, she walked right by it.  
  
When she approached the locker room door, she heard voices from inside. The wooden door was too thick to hear anything, but she heard two different voices, arguing. She didn't want to deal with anyone at the moment, but curiosity got the better of her.  
  
She flung the door open to reveal Alicia in her 'angry' stance, standing with her hands on her hips, facing Oliver Wood who had been sitting on the bench, glaring up at Alicia with his fists clenched.  
  
Oliver's eyes widened and his hands relaxed when Katie walked right up to the pair. The two looked like they were in the middle of quite an argument and she took the opportunity to break it apart. Alicia's stance relaxed and she cast a furtive look to Wood, whose ears were quite red.  
  
"Oh, Katie!" Alicia smiled, throwing her arms around Katie's neck. "You're back! When did you get here?"  
  
"Just a while ago. Half hour, maybe?" Katie answered, when Alicia had stopped hugging her, glad that Alicia was not bringing up the subject of Gram in front of Wood.  
  
"So, then you haven't eaten yet?"  
  
Katie shook her head in reply, carefully avoiding Wood's eyes, but his own eyes happened to be doing the same from Katie's.  
  
"Well, come on then," said Alicia, brightly, smiling encouragingly as she took Katie's hand. Katie was halfway out the door when her Gram's plea came to her.  Her heart began to beat rapidly. _'Make up with him, will you, dear?'_  
  
Katie stopped in her tracks, a pace behind Alicia. Alicia turned around when she had felt a tug on her hand when Katie stopped. "What are you stopping for?"  
  
"I'll be right back," Katie mumbled, just coherently, eyes suddenly wide, looking slightly alarmed.  She turned around to face Wood, who hadn't stood up from his seat on the bench, head down, staring intently at the tile flooring.  
  
Heart beating unusually fast, she attempted to get his attention. "Ol --?" she tried to say his first name, but her throat had gone suddenly dry. She bit into her bottom lip at the failed attempt to call his name; she was inexplicably nervous. But he looked up anyway, red at the ears.  
  
"Huh?" he said, as he looked up to her with parted lips.  
  
"I -- I --" Katie croaked, trying to get the words out. She took a deep breath, shut her eyes tight and blurted out, "I don't hate you."  
  
His eyes widened even larger and he stared with his mouth hanging partially open. He watched as Katie stepped backwards, clumsily into the closed door and fumbled with the handle, her cheeks growing pinker with each failed attempt to grab for it. 

When she had finally managed to clutch the handle, she threw the door open and vanished.  
  
Katie took off down the corridor at a jog, hoping she wouldn't be caught by any prefects for running and caught up with Alicia.  
  
Alicia heard her quick steps and turned around, eyebrows raised. "Katie, are you alright? You look like you've just seen a ghost."  
  
It took Katie a second to realize that Alicia was just using the popular Muggle phrase, as she had indeed passed the Grey Lady while her run to escape the uncomfortable situation with the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. But it was true.  Katie was looking rather pale. 

"I'm just hungry," she lied, shaking her head. She hadn't been hungry for days.  
  
"So," Katie joked, shrugging the seriousness off. "Has Wood and the team missed me much?"  
  
"Wood?" Alicia laughed and answered in a devious tone that made Katie inexplicably uncomfortable. "You have _no idea_..."  
  
***  
  
Wood stared as the door closed. She didn't hate him. And she had called him 'Ol', something that had disappeared with their friendship. His whole cover would have been blown to smithereens had she opened the locker room door any earlier.  
  
But _hey_, she didn't hate him.   
  
A wry grin spread across his face, and he wiggled his eyebrows smugly at a mirror on the wall. He gathered up his things and made his way back to the common room in Gryffindor tower, grinning inwardly the whole way.  
  
He threw himself into an oversized leather armchair and stared into the fire, thinking to himself. 'How can she say that to me?' he thought. 'After every pratty thing I've said, how can she say that she doesn't hate me? I haven't even apologized yet for being a royal idiot.'  
  
Just then Harry Potter walked through the door with a new, sleek Firebolt held proudly over his head. The Firebolt replaced his smashed Nimbus 2000, which he lost in the first game of the year.  
  
The grin on Wood's face stretched into a proud smile, as having a Firebolt on the team surely meant the Quidditch cup was his.   
  
How odd it was that minute's before hand Wood was wallowing in self-pity in the locker room, and now he was happier than he had been in a long time.

Maybe it was the beginning of a new era, he pondered to himself. The weather was perfect for the match Saturday, and with Harry seeing clearly, they would surely win. Harry was on a Firebolt, and _all_ three of his Chasers attending.  There was no doubt in his mind that they would win.

No more losing, no more bad luck. And even the possibly of the beginnings of an old friendship relived.  
  
After Harry let Wood hold the Firebolt, Oliver made his way up the boys' staircase to his own dormitory. He was feeling rather content and tired, but wasn't ready to sleep just yet.  
  
He opened his black trunk with his initials O.W. stamped in gold on the top. As he knelt down to rummage through it, he picked up something soft.  
  
It was that old Montrose Magpies hat; the one he'd gotten that summer when he was nine. The same one he'd always considered burning, but at the last second, chickened out. It was the one he threw in the dustbin, just to pace in front of it for minutes, only to pick it out in the end and throw it back into the far reaches of his trunk, to be mulled over in the future.  
  
It was the hat he'd gotten the first time he ever met Katie Bell, as she stumbled out of the woods behind his house.  
  
But tonight, he didn't attempt to ruin the old hat in any way, shape or form. In fact, he stuck it on his head with fervor, as it barely fit him anymore, and crawled under the covers of his bed and looked forward to practice with the Firebolt, and everyone attending, and fell into a restful sleep.  
  
***  
  
The day crawled by before it was time to practise. Inspired by the Firebolt's presence, the team practiced the best they ever had. And for the first time, to everyone's surprise, Wood had no criticisms at all.  
  
When the match came, Wood assured the team that they would win, the Firebolt acting as a good-luck charm.  
  
With one of the heaviest burdens lifted off Katie's shoulders, she played expertly, only slightly frustrated at Wood. In Harry's chase for the golden snitch, Wood had called out to Harry to stop being a gentleman to Cho Chang and knock her off her broomstick if he had to. For a second, Katie was thankful not to be opposing Oliver Wood at Quidditch; she would be the first girl that he would not knock off her broom.  
  
After watching with baited breath as Harry's fingers closed around the Golden Snitch, and the team had changed out of their Quidditch robes, did Katie actually get up the nerve to try talking to Wood again. With Alicia by her side, she began as she was packing up her Quidditch pads.  
  
"See Wood?" she said in a less than friendly, matter-of-fact tone, as it was hard to be nice to someone who isn't quite friendly to you in the first place. "I _told_ you that I wouldn't forget how to play Quidditch over three days."  
  
That tone always stirred something in Wood, making him search for a comeback just fitting enough to throw back at the ice princess. But when he started to speak in a similar tone as Katie, he felt a sharp pain in his left foot.   
  
"Ow!" he said, looking up to see Alicia glaring daggers at him. "Damnit, Spinnet."  
  
"Be nice," she muttered, still glaring at Wood, arms crossed authoritatively over her chest.  
  
Wood sighed in defeat and fear that Alicia would kill him if he didn't follow her directions, and turned around to Katie who was still wrestling with her duffle bag. "Right," he said, in a forced sort of voice, shoving his hands into his pockets. "_Good _job today, Bell."  
  
Katie dropped her bag, mid pack, and spun around so fast to stare at Wood, that he actually took a step back. "What?" she asked, utterly confused, her eyes narrowing. "Did you - did you just give me a _compliment?"  
  
"Looks like it," he replied, turning red at the ears, but glaring at Alicia, who was looking smug, and left the locker room with his own duffle bag over his shoulder.  
  
Katie watched him go, stunned, before turning to Alicia. "Is that some kind of joke? What's gotten into him?"  
  
That smug look didn't leave Alicia's face as she claimed she had no idea, trying desperately to stifle a giggle.  
  
***  
  
Thoroughly confused by the behaviors of Alicia and Wood, Katie climbed all seven staircases, eight including the one in the entrance hall, up to Gryffindor Tower. It seemed to her that the two of them had an inside joke about her. It was unnerving to think that her best friend, and her...what was he to her, anyway? Certainly wasn't her friend. And he certainly wasn't her enemy, anymore. It was unnerving to think that her Quidditch Captain and her best friend were having private discussions about her. What was there to talk about anyhow?_

When she said the password and entered the common room, a party, led by the Weasley twins, had already begun.  
  
"That was an amazing performance," Rhys told Katie, as he hugged her and pecked gently at her cheek, when he had come through the portrait hole just minutes after.  
  
Never her lips anymore, Katie noticed. The short gentle pecks on the lips were few now, and it started bothering Katie. With boldness carried over from winning the Ravenclaw match, she folded her hands neatly and asked Rhys abruptly, "Rhys, why don't you ever kiss me?"  
  
He stared in stunned silence for a second, and then let her go. This isn't good, Katie told herself.  
  
"This..." Rhys started, "isn't going to work."

***

"You've got to be kidding! The Canons never stood a chance against Montrose!" said ten-year -old Katie Bell as she was walking through the door way to the den in her friend Oliver's house.

"Never say never, Bell," the twelve-year old boy, home on summer holiday from his first year at Hogwarts, passing through the door right after her replied.

"Montrose is at the top of the league!" Katie said, turning around to face the boy, with a skeptic look on her lightly freckled face.

"Yeah, and-" Oliver began.

"And the Canons are in last place," Katie turned and resumed her walking.

"And it usually all comes down to the Seeker," Oliver reasoned, following her once more.

"Yeah..." she murmured absently. She was staring at something on the Wood's mantel peice over the fireplace. 

"What's that?" she asked pointing.

Oliver followed her gaze to the hearth. "What, Floo Powder?"

"No," Katie shook her head and took several steps closer to the mantel. "That," she said, holding out a small hand and hovering over an hour-glass looking object filled with crystal blue sands, and constellations engraved in the gold rimming it's bases.

"Oh," Oliver said, standing behind her, now tall enough to see over the top of her head. "It's a Time Turner."

She looked up at him over her shoulder. "What's it do?"

"Sends you around in time," he said.

Katie moved her hands to take it off its place on the shelf, next to the enchanted clock. Oliver reached his hand to stop her. "We really shouldn't play around with it," he said in a cautious voice.

Katie dropped her hands to her sides and gave a mournful look to her best friend. "Oh come on, I'm bored! Besides! Anything interesting enough is always off-limits."

He stared at her for a moment, considering her words. He couldn't have Katie bored. He didn't want her to leave again like last summer. She was still staring mournfully up at him with great puppy eyes, and a pouted, quivering lower lip. 

He gave in. "Fine," he sighed and reached up and took the Time Turner from its place. "But we can only look at it."

He held the dazzling blue hour-glass out to her so she could get a better look. Her eyes narrowed in concentration, examining every constellation engraved on its rim and reading the Latin words written around the bases circumference, that she could not decipher.

Oliver's own eyes narrowed while watching Katie appreciate the family heir loom that he never really thought twice about until now, when Katie took an interest in it.

He heard a gasp behind him, and his insides froze and Katie jumped back from him as they both turned to see Mrs. Wood glowering at her son.

"Oliver Alexander Wood! What do you think you are doing?!"

Katie glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye, while twisting her hands in knots behind her back. He had on a face of pure terror. She muttered to him, "I didn't know you had a middle name."

As Mrs. Wood bounded up to him, he replied, "I don't," while taking a step back.

His mother swiftly relieved him of the Time Turner, and turned just as swiftly back to him. "What did you think you were doing with this? You know very well that you aren't to be playing with these types of things! What if you had dropped it? It's been in this family for ages! What if you had turned it? You would mess up the chronology of life! We'd never be able to find you! This is very, very dangerous, Oliver! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Oliver had gone from pale to bright red from embarrassment of being yelled at in front of his friend. He opened his mouth to speak, but Katie beat him to it.

"It's my fault," she said, her jaw set.

Both Wood's whipped their head's in the young girl's direction. They were both sporting expressions of surprise, but for different reasons.

"I beg your pardon?" Mrs. Wood asked.

"It's my fault," she said again. "I made him do it. He didn't want to, but I made him. I'm the one to blame."

Mrs. Wood stared at the girl with the captivating green eyes. How did this girl make her son disobey her like that? She had no wand, no magic, hadn't even stepped onto the grounds of Hogwarts yet. So how did she do that? Mrs. Wood looked at the girl who was staring back at her, not even registering Oliver's expression toward her; he was staring at Katie with his mouth hanging open. Mrs. Wood knew the answer to her own questions.

"Oh," she said. "I see. Well, then. Oliver?"

Her son snapped out his stare. "Yeah?"

Mrs. Wood fought the smirk, and decided to be firm. "I think it's time for you to walk Miss Katie here home now. You've had enough for today."

The children nodded somberly and slowly walked out through the backyard. They were quiet most of the way to Katie's grandparents house. When the house came into view from behind the trees, Oliver spoke.

"You really didn't need to do that, you know," he said, hands in his pockets.

Katie had her arms crossed as she looked up at him. "Do what?"

"Take the blame. It wasn't your fault, really," he said in an earnest tone.

"Was too" she replied.

Oliver grinned at her intransigence. "How?"

"You never would have done it if I hadn't forced you into it," she said, honestly, stopping on the first of the white stairs to the back porch, facing him. Now they were even in height.

"Well, you know, thanks anyway," he said, reaching behind her head and gently tugging on her ponytail.

"Hey!" she said, and flew up the stairs, stopping with one hand on the doorknob, the other at the back of her head protecting her hair. "What are friends for?"

*sings* Happy Birthday to meeeeeeee!


	7. Chapter 7: You're Alright

**Title:** When We Were Little  
**Author name:** Allie-Marina  
**Category:** Romance  
**Sub Category:** Humor/Angst  
**Keywords:** Oliver Katie friendship  
**Rating****:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** All Books  
**Summary:** Katie has some bad news. Actual FLUFF.  
**DISCLAIMER:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. May included lines from Friends, Dawson's Creek, Everwood, Smallville, As Told by Ginger, the Great Gatsby, The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson, Love Story to name just a few.  
**Author notes:** Sorry about the wait…I don't really feel like explaining myself. This Chapter was un-beta-ed so….if you care about errors, then don't read it. ENJOY

Wood returned to the dorm unusually early the night of their win again Ravenclaw. He celebrated too much, and too early and was feeling drowsy from all the butterbeer.

He started pulling back the curtains to his four-poster bed, when Rhys came into the room, yawning. 

"What're you doin' here so early for?" Wood asked his friend stifling a yawn of his own.

Rhys frowned crossing his arms. "I should ask you the same thing."

"Long day. Winning the match and all."

"Long day, tell me about it…" Rhys said, moving over to his own bed.

"What's up with you?" Wood asked curiously, sitting down on his trunk at the foot of the bed. 

"It's over, Wood," his friend answered blankly.

"Hmm?" Wood asked, feeling slightly confused. "What's over?"

"Bell and I. It's over," Rhys said letting his back fall against the bed sheets to stare at the curtains of his bed.

Involuntarily, something inside Wood jumped excitedly. Did he just hear correctly? "When, why, how, where?" he asked, suddenly sitting up. He hoped to Merlin that he wasn't smiling outright.

"Just now in the common room."

"Yes, and that leaves why and how, O'Bryan," Wood reminded him, impatiently.

Rhys laughed in spite of himself, rubbing at his blue eyes. "I knew you didn't like Katie, but I didn't expect you to be this happy Wood, honestly."

Wood didn't answer, he didn't trust his mind to speak at the moment. He bit his lip, scowling at himself for almost blowing his cover.

"Well, anyway…I think we were at the point whether it is…or it isn't, you know? And it wasn't. I didn't want to…you know, be stuck in a relationship just for the heck of it."

Again, Wood didn't answer.

"Don't get me wrong. I thought that Katie was great…I still do. She is. Great, really great-"

"Then if she's great why did you end it?" Wood interrupted in a harsh tone that he usually saved for practice. Why was he getting mad at Rhys? He knew the answer, but hated to admit it to himself. "You don't ditch someone who you think is that great!"

"Why do you care, Wood? I thought you hated her!" Rhys sat up and scowled at Wood. "Looking at us in disgust whenever you saw together and all? Bickering everyday with her?"

"I do not hate Katie Bell," Wood murmured, glaring at his best friend. He could feel a hot flush rise up the back of his neck.

Rhys made a snickering noise, "Of course you do."

"I don't," he said again, hoarsely, feeling the heat creep up his ears. He could tell exactly where this was going and he was powerless to stop it. He never should have opened his mouth.

Rhys stared, more confused than anything. "You don't?"

"I don't hate a thing about that girl," he said truthfully, letting out a hollow laugh, though, he couldn't think of what was so funny.

Rhys continued to stare. "So…what are you trying to say, Wood?"

Wood threw him a knowing glance, and looking away. "Figure that out for yourself."

It dawned on Rhys. "You've got a crush on Katie Bell?"

Groaning, Wood turned down the covers to his bed and climbed in, his back to Rhys. "It's not a crush," he said huffily.

"It's not? Then what the bloody hell is it?"

Wood shifted in his bed again. "I don't bloody know, but it pisses me off, I can tell you that much."

Rhys laughed again, finding the whole situation highly ironic, yet amusing. "That's great! I always thought you liked her before I even asked her out! And you always, always denied it! You still do?"

Wood turned his head on the pillow just enough to send Rhys a sideways glare. "Don't even start on it."

"Are you…dare I say it? …In -" Rhys asked dramatically.

"SHOVE OFF!!!" Wood roared. He turned around for a brief second to violently close the curtain.

Rhys continued chuckling to himself, but that it was better not to bother the poor boy anymore. After all, Wood's broom was leaned up against his nightstand and Rhys had no idea where his foil had gotten to.

"Boy, that's irony for you," he said climbing into his own bed.

Wood slept through Sirius Black's break in, but found out about it in the following morning. [Skipped that part]

On Monday he sat in Ancient Runes, bored as usual except that whenever he looked over to Katie he would see that she wasn't her usual self. Leaning on her desk, she cushioned her head with her arms, a pensive frown on her face. He hadn't seen her since the match.

What exactly did Rhys say to her? She actually looked…somewhat pained. That just made him angrier at Rhys, the fact that he didn't even seem to care.

And Katie wasn't any better at practice that afternoon. She kept letting her attention drift, and continually clutched her forehead.

When Wood heard her whimper faintly as she passed him in the air, he called a time out. 

"Bell," he called. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she lied simply.

"Are not. You've been holding your head all day. What's wrong with you?"

"It's just a headache, Wood. Nothing important."

"You were whimpering, Bell."

"I was not!"

"Were too"

"I'm fine, Wood. I've just got a headache," she said, once again rubbing her forehead.

"You can't play like that. Go to the hospital wing, alright?" Wood told her when he had pulled his broom up next to her.

"Why does it matter?"

"What if you lost control of your broom and fell off? Look, you just can't play like that. It's dangerous," he told her softly.

Alicia pulled up on the other side of Katie. "You know he's right Katie. Just go get something from Madam Pomfrey. Not a big deal, right? I'll go with you."

"Will not," Wood commanded. "You need to stay here and practice your catching, Spinnet. I'll go."

Katie groaned. "I'm perfectly capable of making it to the hospital wing on my own alright? You guys are just making it worse!"

With that she glided down to the ground and began walking up to the school. 

Alicia nudged Wood on the arm, with a knowing glance. "Follow her…" she said and flew away.

When Wood did catch up with Katie, she was holding an arm across her chest and the other hand was holding her head.

"Bell, how long have you been like that?" he asked from behind her.

She stopped and turned around. She watched him shift his weight, curiously for a moment. "Since…this morning."

"Bad one, then?" he asked as normally as possible, when they were getting closer to the hospital wing.

Katie just nodded, and Wood took it as a cue to continue in silence to the hospital wing where Katie drank a purple potion and walked back to the pitch with Wood in awkward silence.

When practice was finished, Wood went back out on to the pitch for a little alone time, to fly by himself. It was always a good bit of therapy for him.

He never got to the pitch, because just as he left the changing room door, he saw Katie out of the corner of his eye. She was sitting against the stone wall of the castle, staring at the newly overcast sky.

"Bell?" he asked, making Katie jump from her reverie. She looked up at Wood with wide, startled eyes, before burying her face in her arms that were propped up on her knees.

In that split second of eye contact, Wood's insides froze. Her usually bright, expressive emerald eyes were blood shot, and glimmering streams of tears were running down her cheeks. He never her saw her like that before. He hated to think, but she was awfully pretty when she cried.

He was frozen in place, his feet wouldn't move from the spot and all he could do was stare at her. She picked her head up and gently wiped at her eyes. "What is it you want, Wood?"

"I thought you were feeling better, is all," he said in such a sincere tone that Katie stared at his concerned face. 

She looked out to the dark and cloudy sky again. "Well, I'm not."

He couldn't just walk away, not now. "Is there something I can do to help?"

She let out a laugh and even smiled, but that just pushed more tears through, which she hastily wiped away. "Like what?"

Surprised at his boldness, Wood kneeled down in front of Katie. "I picked a little something up in Advance Wandless Magic…"

Katie smiled lightly, trying to ignore the tears. "Ooh, Advanced," she mocked him. He grinned back.

"I can help if you like." Katie nodded. "Okay, now close your eyes," he told her, but this only caused her to widen her eyes. "I promise, I won't lay a finger on you. Not one."

Katie relented and closed her eyes. Wood raised his hands so they were close to her head, but not touching her. He began concentrating, but the only thing that his hands were sensing was coldness. She wasn't letting him help, apparently. He sighed, letting his hands drop to his thighs. "Katie," he said. "You're not letting me in. I'm just trying to help, Katie."

She opened her eyes, and her lips subconsciously parted when she looked up to Wood. She had never noticed the gentle ring of green surrounding the brownness of his eyes.

They stared at each other for a moment, before Katie closed her eyes again, and Wood raised his hands to her head. This time his hands sensed warmth in place of the coldness. As he moved his hands over the top of her head, he found a cold spot in the air over this area. It was a knot of pain, he found. It wasn't like the other knots he found, though. The other ones had become dull with time and were no longer prominent. 

They were Quidditch injuries and there were a lot of them. They were physical. Whereas, the one he had just found was emotional. He moved his hands away from her head, wondering if the knot of pain had anything to do with her recent breakup. 

"Don't open your eyes. You have a knot over the top of your head. Is that where the pain is?" he asked. Katie nodded silently.

"…it's emotional pain, turned physical. I can't undo it if you don't tell me what the problem is," he whispered. He didn't need to whisper, but it felt fitting for the occasion.

"It's not Rhys," Katie answered automatically, not opening her eyes.

"Well, let's start from the beginning. When did this pain start?" he asked, moving his fingers over the cold knot.

"When I woke up."

"Did you have a dream last night?"

Katie hesitated. It was more like a flashback. One that she wasn't sure she wanted to relive again that day. "I can't do this, Wood. I can't tell you my dream," she said hurriedly, opening her eyes again to see his.

"It won't go away, you know," he said, lowering his hands again. "The pain."

They stared in silence again. She closed her eyes tightly this time. "Fine, I'll tell."

"Whenever, you're ready," he encouraged her.

Katie began in a small, whisper of a voice, as Wood listened to every word. "We used to live in Godric's Hollow until I was about three. It was a beautiful neighborhood. We lived three houses down from the Potter's…  I remember when they went into hiding. They even made us look after their garden for them. Not me of course, I was too young. On Shadow Fest, that last year… Someone…Sirius Black broke the Potter's Fidelius Charm. Death Eater's everywhere. All around the neighborhood..."

Katie began sniffling into her sleeve, tears streaming steadily. "And…and they were all looking for Harry Potter. To kill him, but you knew that of course…"

Wood moved from his kneeling position and sat with his back on the wall next to Katie. She continued in a wavering voice. "And they broke into out house when we were having our supper…they took out their wands and said the Killing Curse…"

Not even thinking, Wood moved a hand around Katie's shoulders and guided her head to his own shoulder. She didn't even put up a fight. He stroked the hair on her head gently as she gathered her courage to tell the rest.

"Any of us…would have died to save him. We were just too late to get between them…" She starting sobbing heavily and Wood just held her tighter, closing his own eyes.

"It's not fair! They thought he was Harry Potter! Green eyes and dark hair! He was only three! And they killed him!"

Wood could feel her pain radiating into him. A cold ache settled through his body and into his very heart. He would not have felt it so much, if it weren't for the connection he felt.

As he ran his fingers over the top of her head, the cold knot in the air was throbbing. Katie was sobbing so hard now that it seemed impossible to finish the rest.

In an attempt to calm her down he gently ran a hand down her arm, and whispered, "It's okay," repeatedly. He was holding her so close now, that he could see the tears mingling with her long eyelashes. 

It was odd to know that Katie needed him now. That her head was on his shoulder, and she didn't seem to mind at all. It was almost like they were still the best of friends and they hadn't lost years arguing and hating each other. Even though he was uncomfortable from the cold ache in his bones, he wouldn't let go until Katie wanted him to.

Her head rose from his shoulder as he let go and she looked into his eyes again. She was startled to see such concern in them. "The Death Eaters killed Damien. My twin," she murmured.

All Wood could do was stare. Katie had him tongue-tied and sputtering mad on more than one occasion, but he had never been at complete loss for thought, let alone words.

Katie looked out to the graying sky again. It looked as though it might shower soon. She bit her lip, thinking to herself. "I've never told anyone that, ever," she said.

"Oh," was all he could say. He wasn't sure how to feel about that. Maybe he should feel honored, he didn't know.

For a while they sat in silence. "Check my head?" She asked, breaking the silence, surprising Wood by placing her head on his shoulder again.

His sensitive hand found that the knot had not disappeared yet. He moved his fingers as if to untie it, but the only way it would come loose was if Katie told him what it was that was really paining her, albeit that losing her brother would always hurt.

"It's not loose enough. There's something else. Just keep talking," he told her.

"Merlin, I hate this!" Katie growled unexpectedly. "How can you see through me like that? Can everyone see like that?"

"Just keeping talking," he said, avoiding the questions.

"Well, I'm a Sensor. I can sometimes feel things around me from people and I can always feel strong emotions from my family. But I haven't gotten a hold on my ability yet."

"I know what a Sensor does. I'm one as well," he spoke calmly, although his insides were all shook up at finding that he and Katie were a lot more alike than either of them knew.

"Honestly? It's really rare…"

"I was doing Extrasensory Magic on you," he told her. "I could sense something wasn't right."

Katie looked down to her hands folded in her lap. Her voice had gone quiet again. "Well, I can sense something isn't right at home. As soon as I even had that dream, I knew it."

"What do you think it is?"

The knot came loose as she swallowed hard and whispered, almost inaudibly, "I just felt Gram die." 

The knot dissolved into the air.

She looked up at Wood for just a moment, before she put her head on his shoulder again. He wrapped an arm over her shoulders again, and let her cry until she had run out of tears. 

It began to drizzle. "We should go in, now," Wood told after a few minutes. "You'll get sick if you stay out here."

"I don't care," came Katie's resolute answer, her head still on his shoulder. "I don't want to go back to my dorm."

"Why, Katie?"

"Because," she began. "As soon as I get there Gregori is going to be there with a letter from Mum telling me what I already know."

Just then, Alicia came out of the door a few feet away from them. She stopped when she saw Oliver and Katie. Wood looked up to her, begging Alicia with his eyes not to say anything about the situation.

"Oh, there you are," she said. "I was looking all over for you! Come in out of the rain!"

Katie stood up, followed by Wood. He picked up his broom and followed them inside the locker room.

***Katie came down from her dorm that afternoon with a letter clutched tightly in her hands. The first person she would tell was Wood. Because he already knew. 

She handed it to Wood, when she sat down next to him on the couch, while he was doing his NEWTs level Charms work. After quickly reading it, he folded the parchment up carefully, and handed it back to Katie. "I'm really sorry, Katie," he told her, and he really was.

She just nodded and gazed into the fire. After a while she curled herself up in the opposite corner of the couch and continued staring at the flames, and eventually dozed off.

When Wood closed his book he looked up to see Katie sleeping silently and was immediately reminded of nights when the moon was full and Katie would climb through his window. She just looked so young tonight.

Katie stirred and woke and hour or so later. She sat up and took her ponytail out from her hair and Wood watched as her hair cascaded down her shoulders.

"I'm going to go now," she said, standing. "I'm really, really tired. Extrasensory Magic can take a lot from you, huh."

"Yeah." 

"But you know what, Wood?"

"What?" he asked.

"You're not all that bad. In fact, you're pretty okay," she said, offering a grin.

"You're alright, too, Bell."


End file.
